2,4,5-Tri(hetero)arylimidazoles: design, synthesis and characterization as novel TPA Chromophores and Optical Chemosensors

2,4,5-Tri(hetero)aryl-imidazoles are a versatile class of compounds with a wide range of applications in diverse areas such as medicinal or materials chemistry due to their biological activity, as well their optoelectronic properties. Our earlier studies showed that the optical and thermal properties of these derivatives could be tuned by substitution of aryl groups at positions 2, 4 and 5 by 5-membered heterocycles such as thiophene and furan. This raises the potential for several innovative applications of these pi-conjugated systems in nonlinear optics (e.g. second harmonic generators (SHG)), chemosensors, OLEDs and DNA intercalators. Recent results from our research group concerning the design, synthesis and characterization of novel 2,4,5-tri(hetero)aryl-imidazoles 1 (Figure 1), as two-photon absorption (TPA) chromophores and/or as optical chemosensors will be presented and discussed.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)Acknowledgements: Thank are due to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal) and FEDER-COMPETE for financial support through Centro de Química (PEst-C/QUI/UI0686/2011 (F-COMP-01-0124-FEDER-022716)) and Centro de Física - Universidade do Minho (Project PTDC/CTM/105597/2008 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-009457)), a PhD grant to R.C.M. Ferreira (SFRH/BD/86408/2012) and a a post-doctoral grant to R.M.F. Batista (SFRH/BPD/79333/2011). The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased with funds from FCT and FEDER